Electro-discharge machining of type H13 tool steel titanium carbide composites
Jerzy Duszczyk, Dionizy Biało, Jan Perończyk, Roy Daniëls
Quarterly No. 1, 2014 pages 8-12
DOI:
keywords: tool steel, composites, TiC particle, electro discharge machining WEDM, material removal rate
abstract One of the most popular steels which have been used for tools in the hot metal extrusion process is AISI type H13 hot work tool steel. Although this steel has relatively good properties - wear resistance and hot toughness - it is no longer completely satisfactory because new extrusion materials place higher demands on extrusion tooling, and H13 type steel in its current form is not optimal. The paper presents the proposition of improving the properties of H13 type steel by introducing hard ceramic particles as reinforcement to the structure. Such composites consist of a modified H13 steel matrix and TiC par-ticles of 0, 10, 20 and 30 volume percent. The composites were manufactured by the powder metallurgy method. The atomized matrix powder was mixed with a TiC powder using a Tubular mixer for 60 min. The mixed materials were consolidated by Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP). Prior to the HIP process, the powder materials were placed in a steel can. The conditions of hot isostatic pressing for the modified H13 tool steel matrix composites were: temperature 1150ºC, time 4 hours and pressure 100 MPa. Particle reinforced metal matrix composites are difficult to machine using conventional manufacturing processes due to high tool wear caused by the hard reinforcement, even those tools which are made of cemented carbides. One of the best methods of machining of composite dies is sink electro-discharge machining EDM or wire electro-discharge machining WEDM. This work concerns the investigation into the machinability of Titanium Carbide (TiC) particle reinforced modified H13 steel using wire electro discharge machining (WEDM). WEDM cutting was conducted using a machine equipped with a RC type relaxation generator. The dielectric used in this experiment was deionized water. As the tool material, brass wire with a diameter of 0.25 mm was used. To compare, wrought H13 steel was also machined. The machining parameters such as pulse time and load voltage were varied in order to optimize the metal removal rate and surface integrity. The obtained results indicate that MMCs can be machined using WEDM although the metal removal rates are lower compared to conventional machining processes. It is shown that the surface roughness increases with higher discharge energy and decreases with the volume fraction of the reinforcement. The optimum machining rate considering the roughness and cutting rate, was when the pulse on-time is at 1.5 µs, pulse off-time at 10 µs and load voltage at 122 V.